To trust or not to trust? Structures, practices and discourses of transboundary trust around the Swedish nuclear power plant Barsebäck near Copenhagen

Abstract

This article examines the role of transboundary trust throughout the evolution of relations regarding the Swedish Barsebäck nuclear power plant, located opposite Copenhagen on the narrow straits separating Denmark and Sweden, which created cross-border tensions until its closure in 1999/2005. The article examines changes in transboundary trust in and between the actors relevant for decision-making regarding the plant, during the three phases of the conflict. It focuses on three aspects, which shaped the development of transboundary trust: first, the role played by pre-existing structures of cross-border institutional, interpersonal and ideological trust, secondly, practices of trust-building that various actors applied to maintain, enhance or rebuild transboundary trust, and thirdly, the growing discourses of mistrust and even distrust in the institutions advocating the use of nuclear power – regardless on which side of the border they were located. The article argues that changes in contemporary views on nuclear risk and the concomitant politicisation of the issue of nuclear power broadened the range of relevant actors, and contributed to changing trust relations. It suggests a mutually reinforcing interaction between interpersonal, institutional and ideological trust, and finds few differences in discourses about institutional trust between transboundary and domestic authorities. Its findings highlight the importance of productive mistrust for nuclear safety, and thus demonstrate that both trust and mistrust are important for living with, but also for limiting (nuclear) risk.

Keywords:

• Trust
• transboundary
• transnational
• borders
• nuclear

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Arne Kaijser (Stockholm) for the very fruitful collaboration that this article greatly benefitted from as well as Markku Lehtonen and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. Research for this article was conducted within the project History of Nuclear Energy and Society (HoNESt), which received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014-2018 under grant agreement No 662268.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jan-Henrik Meyer

Jan-Henrik Meyer is a senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory in Frankfurt, Germany, at the Institute for Futures Studies and Technology Assessment (IZT), Berlin, and an associate researcher at the Leibniz Center for Contemporary History (ZZF) Potsdam, Germany. He teaches European Studies at Free University Berlin. Research interests focus on European politics, history and law, environmental and energy history, in particular nuclear history, in a comparative and transnational perspective. Recent publications include: (with Ute Hasenöhrl) 2020. "The Energy Challenge in Historical Perspective." Technology and Culture 61 (1): 295-306.